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Author: Adam Meadows

As an opponent of the loot box structure, one can’t help but feel that ‘Buy Currency’ iconography threatens to penetrate the exploration of gameplay elements, as the text size represents excess corporate greed and the insidious nature of the ludo-capitalist playtriarchy.

Or something like that.

The point: video games aren’t art, or more aptly, they don’t have to be. Not because they lack artistic merit – but because video games don’t really need that moniker.

Rebirth is a recurrent theme in the hero’s mythological journey – the way they used to be isn’t what we need now. Not anymore. To survive, to conquer the darkness on the horizon, our seminal protagonist must be transformed.

And should they fail to embrace that change – should they fail to shed their former selves – they’re doomed to failure. Their journey ends.

Resident Evil 7: an experience heralded by many as a return to form. Specifically, a first-person mutation of the series’ original form. Hallways, herbs, pistols, shotguns, puzzles – Capcom’s latest scare-fest is a slow-paced trek through a veritable house of horrors.

Absent from the list of things many consider ‘classic Resi’ is the series’ pervading sense of tragedy, something that’s almost impossible to itemise. A half-decent crack at it might include its foreboding musical score, its identifiably human foes and those small, seemingly inconsequential notes.